


The White Cape and the Silverfox

by CreepingBarrage



Category: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-12 13:43:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18012020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreepingBarrage/pseuds/CreepingBarrage
Summary: An alternate telling of the Fantastic Mr. Fox story with the story focusing on the relationship between Ash and Kristofferson.





	1. The Silverfox's Arrival

Kristofferson makes his way up the hill, suitcase in hand. As he reaches the hilltop he looks towards the massive tree in the distance. He checks the map scribbled onto a piece of lined paper from his mother. He was in the correct place all right, although it isn't hard to tell that his uncle owns a house this big, he was a show off after all. Kristofferson begins walking towards the tree. Midway through, he tugs and stares at the sign hanging from around his neck. "Unaccompanied Minor" was on the front in a bold white text on a red background. Why was he wearing this thing in the first place, who even made him wear it? If anything this sign was sure to put him in more danger than anything.

He goes to knock on the door but before he can even get close his uncle throws the door open and greets him with a hug. "Kristofferson!" his uncle stands up and puts a paw on his shoulder,ushering him inside. "I hope the trip wasn't too bad, it's pretty far from here to the other side of the river.". He closes the door behind Kristofferson. "Not at all" Kristofferson replies. "I'm happy that I get to come back and see you all here." Kristofferson says with a smile. He wasn't lying, he always enjoyed his aunt's landscape paintings and playing a variety of sports with his uncle. He loved seeing Ash the most, however.

He remembers how they both used to go swimming down near the river, even though Kristofferson was naturally faster than Ash in general (and he'll admit that he let Ash win on purpose sometimes). They'd stay up late reading Ash's White Cape comics and listening to the radio on the quietest volume, as not to wake the family in the next rooms over. He still has the painting his aunt made of them both. 

He always remembered Ash being the most fun, when they were younger at least. He noticed that the older they got, Ash was growing harsher and trying to avoid Kristofferson more often. He didn't blame Ash, his parents seemed to ignore him and direct their praise towards Kristofferson instead. He doesn't think that they praise Ash even when he was back home on the other side of the river. The lack of attention and praise made him become more distant and standoffish. He decided that he's going to to try and clear the air between them both during this visit. 

“Make yourself comfortable in the living room, I’ll go grab Ash real fast, Felicity should be in there already and I know she’s dying to see you again.” Uncle Foxy said as he rushes down the hallway towards another room. Kristofferson lets off a sigh, his uncle was just as fast-paced as usual despite his age, he wonders how his aunt even deals with him. Kristofferson makes his way to the living room, admiring the structure and furnishings of this new house. Kristofferson places his suitcase on the floor next to one of the sofa chairs in the living room, making sure it wasn’t an obstruction. Just as Kristofferson looks up from his suitcase he sees his aunt emerge from the kitchen. 

“Oh Kristofferson it’s been too long honey” Felicity says, embracing her nephew. Kristofferson returns the hug “It’s good to see you too auntie” he replies. She takes a small step back and looks at him for a moment. “Wow you’ve grown a lot since I’ve last seen you” she says. “You wouldn’t think that your Ash’s younger cousin” she jokes. Kristofferson gives a slight smile, she was right. For as long as he can remember, Kristofferson has always been taller than Ash, even as kids. He didn’t bring up the height difference with Ash, it never really bothered him, although he noticed that a lot of people would talk about it when he wasn’t in earshot. 

Kristofferson could hear footsteps coming from the hallway and turns to meet his uncle entering the room. Along with Ash. He was wearing what looked like a White Cape costume. He must have made it himself, and despite being made by what looked like a mish mash of different clothing items, it resembled the White Cape well. His uncle was standing in the doorway with his arm wrapped around Ash, who was scowling and looking away towards the floor. He gives Ash a slight nudge, to which Ash responds with a worsening scowl and begrudgingly mumbling “Hey Kristofferson” under his breath. Kristofferson replies with a small wave and a “Hello”.

Everyone stands in the living room for a few moments in an awkward silence in which Kristofferson attempts to break. “So….where am I staying Uncle Foxy?” he asks. “The only room we’ve got for you is a place in Ash’s room” his uncle responds “ We’ll make you a bed on the floor for now, we haven’t got anything else for you sorry”. That’s definitely going to mess up his spine Kristofferson thought. “No it’s fine” he says with a small smile. He glances over to Ash, who he sees twitch his ear, turn his head to the side and spits on the floor.

He always had a tendency to do that when something got him angry (which was quite often). Aunt Felicity scowls at Ash and Ash scowls back. Mr Fox claps his paws together, “So uh how would you two like to do some diving from the branches?” he asks the two boys. “ Yeah sounds like fun” Kristofferson replies. 

Ash is not so keen on this, however. He remains silent and standing still, glaring at him, it was unnerving. “All right you two get changed and I’ll get the pool ready”. His uncle walks out and rummages in a closet in the hallway. “You two go and get changed, I’ll be joining you all outside in a minute.” Aunt Felicity said. Kristofferson nods and grabs his suitcase from the ground. Ash makes his way out of the living room, pushing past him, causing him to stumble slightly. He regains his composure and follows behind Ash, towards his room.

Kristofferson closes the door behind him and sets his suitcase down. Ash’s room is…… cozy. He had a bunk bed with space beneath where his bookcase was, a window and where a couple of other ornaments were hung up. His walls were painted with stars and a moon with several White Cape posters hung up, there were a few boxes left around here and there which was expected due to how recently they moved in. Kristofferson’s attention was immediately drawn to the train set which took up most of the space in the room. It looked as though every single piece was handcrafted, and it took up around a quarter of the space of the room. 

He saw a switch on the side of the set, clearly the power switch, he wanted to go over and turn it on though he felt that Ash would probably get angry at him, so best leave it for now. Kristofferson places his suitcase to the side and before he could do anything else he was confronted by Ash in his swimming trunks. Caught off guard, he takes a step backward and hits his back against the wall. 

“Don’t touch anything while you’re staying here.” Ash says in a cold voice. Kristofferson tried to force out a response, “I-I wasn’t-” but is interrupted. “You think I didn’t see you staring at my train set?” he growls. So much for clearing the air, Kristofferson thought. “I wasn't going to touch it….” Kristofferson says quietly. Ash’s ear twitches and he spits. He’d managed to make him do that twice in the first ten minutes of their reunion, so needless to say, it wasn’t going well. Ash shoves him to the side, opens the door, walks out and slams the door behind him. Flinching at the loud slam of the door, Kristofferson lets out a loud sigh and begins to undress, taking his swimming trunks from his suitcase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading through this first chapter! This is my first writing piece I've done and decided to do it on these 2 characters as I thought the relationship between them was very enjoyable and wanted to expand upon it in some manner. I am very grateful for any feedback or criticism on this story


	2. The Athlete and The Natural

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of my personal favourite scenes from the film is where this chapter begins, where we get to see the kind of relationship Ash and Kristofferson have with each other and Kristofferson's talent at pretty much everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, all criticism and feedback is welcome. Thank you for any and all who read my work, I really appreciate it!

They both stood atop one of the branches on the tree, both taking a short break after climbing that surprising distance. Mr Fox sits at the base of the tree eating an apple next to Felicity, who is painting as she usually does with the record player playing its song gently in the background. He takes a bite out of the fruit. “He’s slightly younger but he’s a cuss of a lot bigger. That’s just genetics I guess, Ash has a littler body type.” he says, looking up towards the two. 

Ash looks away, grimacing. He turns his head towards Kristofferson who he saw was scrutinizing him, looking at him from head to toe. Ash tries to size him up in return, scanning him from top to bottom. Even though this was supposed to “intimidate” Kristofferson somehow, it just highlighted the height difference between them even more, making him feel embarrassed for his small stature in comparison to his younger cousin. Realising this, Ash turns away with a defeated frown on his face and then clenches and unclenches his paws.

Deciding to try and look athletic in front of his family, he snaps his fingers, whistles and whispers “Go.”. He’ll admit that he’s scared of the height but the admiration of his parents and cousin would be worth it. Plummeting quickly, he flails his arms wildly and yells out towards his father “Watch this dad!”. Ash hits the water with a huge splash, causing the tub to overflow all over the grass. Raising his head above the surface of the water, he looks towards his dad, waiting for a response or some form of feedback. “Maybe a round of applause, a cheer and a smile on his face, true pride in his own kid for once?” Ash thought. 

Instead of this, he was greeted with a dismissive clap and his father immediately going back to his apple and paper. “Well well. Good jump Ash, remember to keep your tail tucked” he says. Ash sits in the tub in pure disbelief, shocked expression and all. He grabs his own drenched tail and looks at it as the disbelief quickly becomes rage. He gets out of the tub, grabs a towel and stands to the side, gritting his teeth and shivering. Mr Fox leans over to Felicity and looks at the painting she was working on; a thunderstorm, as usual.

“Still painting thunderstorms I see.” he jokes. “Do you still feel poor?” she asks him, somewhat out of the blue. Mr Fox pauses for a moment, considering his answer, finally answering with a “Less so.”. He looks back up at Kristofferson who was preparing to dive, as did Ash.. Despite how much he disliked how much Kristofferson was praised by everyone in contrast to himself, Ash had to admit that he could see why. He was composed perfectly and it was clear that he has done this for an extensive amount of time in his life. Probably did a lot of swimming and the sort with his dad, Ash thought. Kristofferson leapt off of the branch, pulling off a perfect diving form. He turns 180 degrees two seperate times and landing in the tub with almost no water splashing whatsoever. He raises his head above the surface and spits out some water as he pushes his ears back slightly “How the cuss….” Ash mumbles to himself , speechless and bewildered after seeing the spectacle. His father, however, was not so subtle with his amazement. He immediately stands up, applauding and cheering. “Woah! Look at that, this kid’s a natural I’m speechless Kristofferson!” he exclaims as his wife looks back at him in surprise.

Kristofferson gives a smile in response to his uncle’s praise and then glances a few times towards Ash. He looks back and forth between Kristofferson and his father, growling and clenching his towel and begins frantically drying himself. “Plus he knows karate” Mr Fox adds before going back to the base of the tree with his apple and paper. Ash walks towards the base of the tree.

When he arrives he faces in the direction of Kristofferson and asks his father “Do you think I’m an athlete?”. Mr Fox leans away from his paper and looks at Ash “What are you talking about?”. “Well, you know, I think that I’m an athlete and sometimes, I feel like you guys don’t see me that way.” Ash replies, still shivering. Mr Fox looks at him with a puzzled look, “What’s the subtext here?”. 

They both look over to Kristofferson who, for whatever reason, had his legs tied in a pretzel and mumbling things to himself. Ash was visibly confused and so was his father who blurts out ”Is he...praying?”. Felicity takes notice of this as well, giving her best guess as to what he was doing “I think that’s yoga.”. Ash tears his bewildered gaze away from Kristofferson and instead talks to his mother, who had gone back to her painting. 

“How long is Kristofferson supposed to stay with us?” he asks rather coldly. His mother answers in a hushed voice “Until your uncle gets better.”, Ash could tell that she was trying to keep this conversation from Kristofferson. He, however did not show any remorse or care and instead answered in his normal speaking voice. “Right, but roughly how long do we plan to give him on that? Double pneumonia? It’s not that big of a deal is it?”. Felicity snaps her fingers and points at Ash, she’s glaring straight at him. Glancing back and forth between her paw and stare, he stares back in shock as she whispers “Lower your voice Ash.”. 

The snap of her fingers alerted Kristofferson who opens his eyes and looks at the two, seemingly unaware of the events that just occurred. Ash’s ears flattened as he trudges his way inside, clearly exhausted and fed-up with the situation. Felicity sighs out of frustration and Mr Fox takes another bite of his apple. “What has gotten into him lately” she sighs. Mr Fox swallows the mouthful of the apple and turns to his wife. “I just think he’s...different” he says, waving his arms somewhat. 

Ash locked himself in his room, slamming the door shut and clenches his paws. He yells and flails wildly, enraged but not dumb enough to damage his own belongings. “So what if his dad has double pneumonia” he mumbles, in the process of changing out of his trunks and into his White Cape outfit. “At least his dad takes notice of him.” he grumbles. “Wow you’re so great Kristofferson, way better than my son who can’t do cuss.” he said in a mocking tone of his father. As the White Cape mask was being put on, Ash heard a knock at his door. He refuses to answer, too caught up in his rage to care or notice. After a couple of seconds pass, a voice comes from the other side. It’s Kristofferson. “Am I allowed in? I left my clothes in my luggage and I’m kind of getting cold.” he asks, followed by his teeth chattering quite loudly. Ash groans loudly but allows Kristofferson in regardless. He was shivering with a towel wrapped around his waist. Why didn't he just wrap it around his shoulders ,Ash thought, surely that would be warmer. He shook his head and went back to drying himself. “Just hurry up” he mutters.

Kristofferson makes his way to his belongings, looking down and avoiding eye contact with Ash, out of fear of him starting another argument. Ash looks at the White Cape mask he was putting on. He glances back and forth between Kristofferson and the mask, thinking more about how his parents admire Kristofferson more than their own son. He clenches the mask in his paws and grits his teeth. He throws the mask aside and turns towards Kristofferson. “Can I ask you something?” he blurts out. Kristofferson gives a clearly confused expression and answers “Uh… okay” whilst still looking for his change of clothes. Ash moves towards the centre of the room, facing Kristofferson. “How long are you staying with us?” Ash grumbles. Kristofferson pauses but then continues rummaging through his things. “Until my father recovers from his illness. My mother needs to focus on his care and I’m just kind of in the way.” he replies. 

“That double pneumonia thing” Ash interrupts. “Yeah.” Kristofferson sighs. “I’m trying not to think about it too much. I kind of want to enjoy my time here, kind of like when we were small.” Kristofferson smiles at the memory of the two of them playing. He turns his head towards him. “Do you remember that Ash?”. Ash grumbles, “No, I don’t.”. Kristofferson’s expression drops. “That’s too bad” he mutters. 

He finishes his search, pulling out a clean, blue polo shirt. He pulls it over his head and slips his arms through and though he finds difficulty with getting his ears through, he gets the shirt on eventually. He grabs a book from his suitcase and stands up, facing the doorway. He walks into the hallway and turns back towards Ash. “I’m going back outside, maybe we could play some more later.” he says, ending with a smile and making his way back outside.

Ash stands in the middle of the room, a little surprised at how quickly Kristofferson’s mood changed. He shakes his head and climbs up on his bed. He rummages under his blanket and pillow, eventually pulling out one of his White Cape comics. He quickly climbs down his ladder, and pauses midway to the doorway, spotting something in Kristofferson’s suitcase. It’s a reflective surface, seemingly glass partially covered by clothes. Ash pulls it out from under the clothes.

It’s a picture frame. It has a much younger Kristofferson in the centre, alongside Ash. Both of their parents are there. On the right Mr Fox is holding an apple with is arm around Felicity, who herself was holding a paintbrush and had an arm around Mr Fox in a similar fashion.On the left, Kristofferson’s mother had her arms around his father, who was returning the gesture. Ash and Kristofferson were in the center of the photo. Ash had both of his arms wrapped around Kristofferson’s torso and none of his limbs were touching the ground, it looked like a perfectly timed tackle hug. Kristofferson was sitting with his legs crossed and a big smile on his face, clearly unphased by Ash’s tackle.   
“Wasn’t this when we visited a couple of years ago?” Ash mumbles. “Come to think of it, we haven’t visited since then..” Ash gives a faint smile and puts the photo back, making his way out and shutting the door behind him, comic book in hand.


End file.
